October 4, 1955 — nr. Baku, Azerbaijan
7:10 p.m. Senator Richard B. Russell Jr. (D-Ga.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, on a trip to the USSR, is on a Soviet train near Baku, Azerbaijan, when he spots a disc-shaped craft taking off near the tracks. Russell sees the “first flying disc ascend and pass over the train” and goes “rushing in to get Mr. Efron [Reuben Efron, his interpreter] and Col. Hathaway [Col. E. U. Hathaway, his aide] to see it,” the report says. “Col. Hathaway stated that he got to the window with the Senator in time to see the first [UFO], while Mr. Efron said that he got only a short glimpse of the first. However, all three saw the second disc and all agreed that they saw the same round, disc-shaped craft…as the first.” A fourth witness is unidentified. “One disc ascended almost vertically, at a relatively slow speed, with its outer surface revolving slowly to the right, to an altitude of about 6,000 feet, where its speed then increased sharply as it headed north,” the report states. “The second flying disc was seen performing the same actions about one minute later. The take-off area was about 1–2 miles south of the rail line.” The Air Force report is written by Lieut. Col. Thomas Ryan, who interviews Russell’s companions in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic], on October 13, after they arrive there from Russia shortly after the sighting. The report remains Top Secret until April 30, 1959, and Secret until March 1985 when Stanton Friedman manages to get it declassified following a FOIA request. [Eberhart] Tom Towers at the Examiner played Al Chop in the docu-drama UFO.
Map:
ATIC Report:
FBI Memo:
CIA Scoville’s comments:
Interpreter Report:
Russel Interview:
Sources:
“Reported Sighting of Unusual Aircraft in USSR,” CIA Current Intelligence Bulletin, October 15, 1955, pp. 3–4;
https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79T00975A002200380001-5.pdf
Tom Towers, “About ‘Saucers’ and Sen. Russell’s Letter,” Los Angeles Examiner, January 20, 1957;
Tom Towers, “Flying Saucers and Senator Russell*”, Saucers (Max Miller) 5, no. 1 (Spring 1957): 2-3; [Reprint of Examiner article]
“The Senator Russell Letter Revealed,” APRO Bulletin, January 1957, p. 1;
Dan Schwartz, “Top U.S. Senator Saw Two UFOs,” National Enquirer, February 11, 1986, via APCIC Clipping Service 11, no. 2 (February 1986): 22–23;
Timothy Good, Above Top Secret, pp. 224–226;
Bob Gribble, “Looking Back,” MUFON UFO Journal, (October 1990): 19;
Jerome Clark, UFO ENCOUNTERS – SIGHTINGS, VISITATIONS, AND INVESTIGATIONS, 1992, p. 39; [also printed in The UFO Files and UFO Encounters & Beyond on pp. 53-54 in both paperbacks]
Loren E. Gross, The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse: UFOs, a History: 1955 September 16th–December 31st, The Author, 1993, pp. 19-24;
Joel Carpenter, “The Senator, the Saucer, and Special Report 14,” IUR 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 3–7, 11;
Michael Swords and Robert Powell, UFOs and Government, pp. 227–228;
Mikes Notes:
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 1049–1050;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 1164–1165;
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 1152, p. 231;
Michael Swords Files, 38C;
NICAP, “Senator Russell Observes UFO from Train”;
Wikipedia, “Richard Russell Jr.”;1004
Richard Russell Jr. - Wikipedia .
John Greenewald, “Declassified Top Secret CIA Memo Reveals Senator’s ‘Saucer-Like’ Craft Sighting in 1955,” The Black Vault,
July 11, 2023;